Top down control takes some time off as words start to flow.

At Ars, we’ve seen tears and faux tarantulas inside fMRI machines, but here’s a new one: rappers. A group of researchers from NIH wanted to investigate what goes on in the brain during periods of intense creativity, and what’s a better example of pure improvisation than freestyle rapping? So the researchers—along with two rappers/co-authors—ran a group of freestylers through an fMRI machine and reported their results in this week’s Scientific Reports.

Twelve male rappers, all of whom had at least 5 years of professional experience, took part in the study. The same 8-bar background track was used for all the experiments; in the “conventional” condition, the participants were asked to memorize lyrics given to them a week before the experiment. In the “improvised,” or freestyle, condition, the rappers had to come up with lyrics on the spot—or, rather, in the tube. Each participant was scanned in an fMRI machine under both the “conventional” and the “improvised” conditions to determine how brain activity differed between these two types of performances.

One of the major differences between the improvisational and the rehearsed rap was that those who were freestyling had increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and decreased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), compared to those that were rapping verses they had practiced. In general, the MPFC provides signals to the DLPFC, where the information is processed and passed along to the rest of the body.

The DLPFC, therefore, can act as a filter and has executive control over what eventually reaches the motor system. During freestyling, however, it appears that this control system is muted, allowing flexibility and creativity to blossom without being stifled or double-checked.

The fMRI results suggest that, while improvising, rappers enter a “flow” state that is similar to athletes being "in the zone.” Several parts of the brain involved in sensory experience—including the amygdala, the inferior parietal lobules, and the insulae—are activated and connected, helping the rapper become immersed in the performance, and potentially fostering creativity.

The researchers also found that brain activity during freestyles changes across time, possibly due to differing demands at various parts of the rap. At the beginning of an improvised 8-bar segment, activity peaked in the left half of the brain. However, by the last measure of each 8-bar segment, activity in the right half of the brain was peaking. This may be due to differing cognitive demands at these different parts of the rap; at the beginning of a segment, language and creativity may be of the utmost importance, but by the end of the verse, a rapper might need to rely more on a rule-based approach in order to ensure proper rhyme and rhythm.

As an interesting side note, each rapper was given a language test before the experiment that assessed their linguistic skills; all twelve participants scored above the 80th percentile. It’s not too surprising that these guys are whizzes with language, when you consider the incredible linguistic demands of freestyling.

Although the study was largely exploratory and the researchers didn't test any explicit hypotheses, the study offers interesting insights into the neural underpinnings of improvisation and the creative process. It’s clear that different areas of the brain are activated during freestyle compared to rehearsed rap; in fact, entire neural networks emerge during improvisation, inhibiting self-control and affecting emotional state, two changes that may foster and improve creativity.

While some other types of musicians, such as jazz pianists, have undergone fMRIs to investigate improvisation, the jury is still out on whether similar process underlie creativity in non-musical artistic pursuits, or in spontaneity in our day-to-day life.

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

Let me be the first, then. Your definition is arbitrary. This is exactly the same as jazz improvisation, which has also been studied extensively by academics. You sound like someone slamming the Impressionists in 1863.

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

It's a study on improvisational creativity. Just because the subject sampled is not your cup of tea doesn't mean the study is worthless. Even "Intentionally composing original music" has to start from somewhere.

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

Obviously, you have no clue about music creation.

I do, having watched my son noodle things out with his guitars and other instruments. He will start playing and when he hits something that intrigues him, he experiments further. Sometimes this does involve shredding up and down the frets.

At times he is almost like a dog raising its nose to catch that elusive scent. And then my kid doggedly pursues the idea... in and around until he has what he was searching for. It is only after a while that he begins imposing structure, actually turning it into a song. And throughout, he is engaging both his creativity and intellect (knowledge of theory).

It might have been easier to ask subjects to make up puns which "resonated" with some random topic. It would have served the same "function". This has a better "image" though, as rappers tend to have more of a "magnetic" personality. (I could keep these going all day.)

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

Let me be the first, then. Your definition is arbitrary. This is exactly the same as jazz improvisation, which has also been studied extensively by academics. You sound like someone slamming the Impressionists in 1863.

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

Obviously, you have no clue about music creation.

I do, having watched my son noodle things out with his guitars and other instruments. He will start playing and when he hits something that intrigues him, he experiments further. Sometimes this does involve shredding up and down the frets.

At times he is almost like a dog raising its nose to catch that elusive scent. And then my kid doggedly pursues the idea... in and around until he has what he was searching for. It is only after a while that he begins imposing structure, actually turning it into a song. And throughout, he is engaging both his creativity and intellect (knowledge of theory).

It is an amazing thing to both watch and listen to.

FYI, I'm a pianist and composer. And even though my comment was meant to be ironic, it has a little bit of seriousness in it. Improvisation is not exactly what I would call creativity as it is mainly the repetition of patterns (with a little but of creative effort, that I will grant you). Full creativity comes in less spontaneous and more methodical processes and huge training. Everyone can be a decent rapper if they wish to, not everyone could write decent music unless they pursue a life of training on that.

In your comment, I think you are contradicting yourself, because it seems pretty clear to me that your son is not improvising, but experimenting with different sounds and rithms, which is part of that training I mention.

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

It's a study on improvisational creativity. Just because the subject sampled is not your cup of tea doesn't mean the study is worthless. Even "Intentionally composing original music" has to start from somewhere.

"Intentionally composing" does not start from improvisation, as many "scientist" believe. It starts with unconscious feedback of a musical idea that you then follow and develop. Which is why there exist such words as "inspiration" and such...

You know when creationists say "it's impossible for random chance to make something as complex as an eye"? Or "throw a bunch of watch pieces into a bag, shake it up, and it doesn't randomly turn into a watch"?

You. You are that person right now. Now I don't care much for rap (it's not my taste, really) but most of the rap I have heard, even freestyle, has had some kind of a thread, subject or storyline.

Then again, perhaps I haven't heard as much rap as you - seeing as I don't go looking for it, it's certainly likely.

For comparison sake, I would have liked to now what do the brains of non-rappers look like when trying to rap. This will shed light on how mental training effects the brain. Either there will not be this using of only one part of the brain, which implies that training makes the brain more able to switch off one part for the sake of another part; or the exact same areas of the brain would light up, which would mean that training makes certain areas of the brain more highly developed. Obviously it will be a bit of both, but I would really liked to know which one would be more prevalent.

I would be interested to see variations on this study, particularly a word-prompted freestyle (wherein the emcee is given a word and has to freestyle a bars or two that includes the given word). That way, you could compare brain activation for uncued (this story) and cued freestyling.

Anywho, as a fan of hip-hop, this is a pretty cool story.

"Some people think I won't make itbut I know that I willEscape the emptinesscause that shit is slow and it killsthe flow and the skillI made y'all believe it at lastYou can make the futurebut it starts with leaving the past"- Immortal Technique

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

Obviously, you have no clue about music creation.

I do, having watched my son noodle things out with his guitars and other instruments. He will start playing and when he hits something that intrigues him, he experiments further. Sometimes this does involve shredding up and down the frets.

At times he is almost like a dog raising its nose to catch that elusive scent. And then my kid doggedly pursues the idea... in and around until he has what he was searching for. It is only after a while that he begins imposing structure, actually turning it into a song. And throughout, he is engaging both his creativity and intellect (knowledge of theory).

It is an amazing thing to both watch and listen to.

FYI, I'm a pianist and composer. And even though my comment was meant to be ironic, it has a little bit of seriousness in it. Improvisation is not exactly what I would call creativity as it is mainly the repetition of patterns (with a little but of creative effort, that I will grant you). Full creativity comes in less spontaneous and more methodical processes and huge training. Everyone can be a decent rapper if they wish to, not everyone could write decent music unless they pursue a life of training on that.

In your comment, I think you are contradicting yourself, because it seems pretty clear to me that your son is not improvising, but experimenting with different sounds and rithms, which is part of that training I mention.

No contradiction. The creative aspect is in finding the new melody. The repetition comes after as does the searching for the right tonal and rhythmic quality. Creativity comes again as he lays down multiple tracks using instruments that he first hears in his head for instance when he creates solos against his own rhythm tracks. This was the case for all eleven of his original songs he recorded this year. - Not yet on iTunes... but soon.

You know when creationists say "it's impossible for random chance to make something as complex as an eye"? Or "throw a bunch of watch pieces into a bag, shake it up, and it doesn't randomly turn into a watch"?

You. You are that person right now. Now I don't care much for rap (it's not my taste, really) but most of the rap I have heard, even freestyle, has had some kind of a thread, subject or storyline.

Then again, perhaps I haven't heard as much rap as you - seeing as I don't go looking for it, it's certainly likely.

Um, err, no

The theory of Natural selection and mutations is about achieving a goal through random changes and a lot of trial and error.

Rapping is about creating a song via intelligently picking words and getting something good (according to some people's tastes) the first time off.

I know that it is the in thing to refer to any creativity or improvements as evolution, but your comment is just ridiculous.

Back on topic, rapping is not less creative than a piano piece - in fact the point of rap is to have the same creativity without having to spend hours practicing hand movements or having to buy a piano. Thus one could say it is more purely creative.

It'll be interesting to see if they can do this for 'non artists'. There are plenty of other fields that require creativity like engineering, programming, mathematics, etc. It would be interesting to see is there is a similar suppressed activity level in the DFPLC needed to "get into the zone' for those professions. It would also be interesting to then figure out where the analytical power needed to filter the raw ideas comes from (or if it is a similar process to taking ideas and converting them to language).

It would also be interesting to study the effects of substances commonly used in attempts to boost creativity to see their effects. There are so few that could be tested inside the US (but it could neat to try and quantify the [url]Ballmer Peak[/url]).

FYI, I'm a pianist and composer. And even though my comment was meant to be ironic, it has a little bit of seriousness in it. Improvisation is not exactly what I would call creativity as it is mainly the repetition of patterns (with a little but of creative effort, that I will grant you). Full creativity comes in less spontaneous and more methodical processes and huge training. Everyone can be a decent rapper if they wish to, not everyone could write decent music unless they pursue a life of training on that.

In your comment, I think you are contradicting yourself, because it seems pretty clear to me that your son is not improvising, but experimenting with different sounds and rithms, which is part of that training I mention.

I'm going to disagree with you right there. He may not be improvising in the sense that he's playing unscripted notes in accordance to a specific key, cadence, and mode. However, he is improvising in the sense that he's playing music without a piece of paper in front of him to tell him how music should be played. That is both a creative act and a musical one. I can only hope that you miscommunicated your intent, and that you weren't being so belittling to a fellow artist just because he doesn't have the training you do. However, you've already expressed your contempt for an absolutely valid form of music which has been around for almost forty years, so that inference is reinforced.

What you're doing is putting the cart before the horse. Creativity will desire instruction, but instruction does not require creativity. A creative person will hone their craft so that they can better express their creativity, but somebody merely interested in the craft will have no or little creativity to express. Creativity encourages us to learn the rules so that we know how and when to break convention.

Also it's spelled "rhythm."

@JustADad: Tell your son that I think he's awesome. Keep rocking it and don't ever let the world tell you to stop.

It'll be interesting to see if they can do this for 'non artists'. There are plenty of other fields that require creativity like engineering, programming, mathematics, etc. It would be interesting to see is there is a similar suppressed activity level in the DFPLC needed to "get into the zone' for those professions. It would also be interesting to then figure out where the analytical power needed to filter the raw ideas comes from (or if it is a similar process to taking ideas and converting them to language).

It would also be interesting to study the effects of substances commonly used in attempts to boost creativity to see their effects. There are so few that could be tested inside the US (but it could neat to try and quantify the [url]Ballmer Peak[/url]).

FYI, I'm a pianist and composer. And even though my comment was meant to be ironic, it has a little bit of seriousness in it. Improvisation is not exactly what I would call creativity as it is mainly the repetition of patterns (with a little but of creative effort, that I will grant you). Full creativity comes in less spontaneous and more methodical processes and huge training. Everyone can be a decent rapper if they wish to, not everyone could write decent music unless they pursue a life of training on that.

In your comment, I think you are contradicting yourself, because it seems pretty clear to me that your son is not improvising, but experimenting with different sounds and rithms, which is part of that training I mention.

I'm going to disagree with you right there. He may not be improvising in the sense that he's playing unscripted notes in accordance to a specific key, cadence, and mode. However, he is improvising in the sense that he's playing music without a piece of paper in front of him to tell him how music should be played. That is both a creative act and a musical one. I can only hope that you miscommunicated your intent, and that you weren't being so belittling to a fellow artist just because he doesn't have the training you do. However, you've already expressed your contempt for an absolutely valid form of music which has been around for almost forty years, so that inference is reinforced.

What you're doing is putting the cart before the horse. Creativity will desire instruction, but instruction does not require creativity. A creative person will hone their craft so that they can better express their creativity, but somebody merely interested in the craft will have no or little creativity to express. Creativity encourages us to learn the rules so that we know how and when to break convention.

Also it's spelled "rhythm."

@JustADad: Tell your son that I think he's awesome. Keep rocking it and don't ever let the world tell you to stop.

He won't! Just today, he stayed after school because his high school Drama Department wants him to compose music for some of their upcoming plays. My role in is his music has been explained to me by my son: I am the best roadie he can afford.

I would be interested to see variations on this study, particularly a word-prompted freestyle (wherein the emcee is given a word and has to freestyle a bars or two that includes the given word). That way, you could compare brain activation for uncued (this story) and cued freestyling.

If you've ever seen any other real time improvised art form; I'd say it's about the same.

improv sketch comedy: all players can say anything they want as long as they maintain a semblance of a theme. The ones that do it best amplify the comedic effect, the ones that just say random things because it sounds 'funny'.. well, they just kill the whole skit.

improv jazz: while individual players have variations on their performance (due to differing instruments and abilities), there's always a baseline rhythm that all players must adhere to; otherwise the whole song falls apart.

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

Obviously, you have no clue about music creation.

I do, having watched my son noodle things out with his guitars and other instruments. He will start playing and when he hits something that intrigues him, he experiments further. Sometimes this does involve shredding up and down the frets.

At times he is almost like a dog raising its nose to catch that elusive scent. And then my kid doggedly pursues the idea... in and around until he has what he was searching for. It is only after a while that he begins imposing structure, actually turning it into a song. And throughout, he is engaging both his creativity and intellect (knowledge of theory).

It is an amazing thing to both watch and listen to.

FYI, I'm a pianist and composer. And even though my comment was meant to be ironic, it has a little bit of seriousness in it. Improvisation is not exactly what I would call creativity as it is mainly the repetition of patterns (with a little but of creative effort, that I will grant you). Full creativity comes in less spontaneous and more methodical processes and huge training. Everyone can be a decent rapper if they wish to, not everyone could write decent music unless they pursue a life of training on that.

In your comment, I think you are contradicting yourself, because it seems pretty clear to me that your son is not improvising, but experimenting with different sounds and rithms, which is part of that training I mention.

The fundamental problem with your argument is that you are assuming that all improvisation is random and mindless, which it is not. It most definitely takes creativity to improvise (well) in any art form. If you don't like rap, just say it. Don't be a snob and just claim that it and other genres like jazz are not music and don't require talent. Also, making great music doesn't require "huge training." I think the word you're looking for is practice. I hope you don't honestly believe that the only good musicians are the ones that had the means or opportunity to be trained by someone.

While they were there, did the researchers also look for why these guys think that wearing their trousers (pants for my US cousins) half way down their arse is cool?What about the finger pointing and chest tapping manerisms they all strangely share?

FYI, I'm a pianist and composer. And even though my comment was meant to be ironic, it has a little bit of seriousness in it. Improvisation is not exactly what I would call creativity as it is mainly the repetition of patterns (with a little but of creative effort, that I will grant you). Full creativity comes in less spontaneous and more methodical processes and huge training. Everyone can be a decent rapper if they wish to, not everyone could write decent music unless they pursue a life of training on that.

You do know that the best composers, and the best artists for that matter, are ones that had just enough training to know what they were doing, but decided to buck convention and "improvise" while they were working, right? If you only follow what you were taught, there is little creativity, you're just going through the motions of your training. I remember hearing a quote once, and I may be misremembering who said it, but for some reason Picasso was is stuck in my mind, that when asked how he painted the way that he did, he replied "I don't know, I just do" (or something to that effect). Maybe it was Van Gogh... I'll have to look that up again. Anyhow, the point is, the true innovators, the truly creative, could do what they did before the training, the training just helped them hone their trade.

And, this is a bad example, but I will use it anyway. When I was in college, I was in chemical engineering, and at one of my co-ops, I ended up getting into a project that had me working on an Access and Excel database project in my off time. Anyhow, it got me to change majors, and I am now a database administrator/developer. Anyhow, I'm not the best programmer in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know that I am extremely technically creative (it's one of my strengths), and I can write a fully fleshed out, documented, and almost bug free database application without going through the planning steps that most programmers have to do to write the same thing. Now, that being said, I do go through the planning process at work, mainly for the benefit of my supervisors so that they are comfortable with the process, but I actually program and write the plan as I do, then use what I programmed as my starting point when I actually officially do the work. I produce my best work when I turn off the logical portion of my brain where my actual training exists, and code on instinct. Most of the best artists of all time do the same, except on a higher level. The training gets to be "muscle memory", you will instinctively do the training without thinking, the improvisation comes from the forming of the solutions, whether it be solutions for how to make the tree look like a realistic tree (or not realistic, whichever method you are using), how to bridge between two harmonies without sounding like dying cats, or coming up with a way to store relational data in such a manner that you can access several database tables simultaneously that each contain tens of millions of rows and have it return results in less than a second. Anybody with training can compose music, but not everybody with training can compose music that actually sounds like music. The difference is the spark that is improvisation.

Edit to add: I can't find the exact quote I was thinking of, but I did find one that's similar and impresses the same point. Picasso once said "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."

While they were there, did the researchers also look for why these guys think that wearing their trousers (pants for my US cousins) half way down their arse is cool?What about the finger pointing and chest tapping manerisms they all strangely share?

I can answer the first part of your question: A while back (as far as I know, this doesn't happen anymore), some prison wardens intentionally gave ill-fitting clothes to some inmates. The point was to humiliate them, since having your clothes falling off is pretty demoralizing. But people outside the prison started to wear baggy clothes in solidarity with the prisoners. So even though they don't do that anymore, it's now a general (vague) statement of defiance against authority trying to make you feel ashamed.

Machine-gunning lots of random words in succession is not creativity. Fast fingering on guitar fretboard along scales is not creativity either... Intentionally composing original music that can be reproduced is.

Bullshit.

It might be worth exploring the differences, though, between this study and (for instance) some subjects with aphasia and similar disorders. Compare/contrast to someone making a painting or a short story. I don't think you could disagree that there are at least widely varying kinds of "creativity."

You know when creationists say "it's impossible for random chance to make something as complex as an eye"? Or "throw a bunch of watch pieces into a bag, shake it up, and it doesn't randomly turn into a watch"?

You. You are that person right now. Now I don't care much for rap (it's not my taste, really) but most of the rap I have heard, even freestyle, has had some kind of a thread, subject or storyline.

Then again, perhaps I haven't heard as much rap as you - seeing as I don't go looking for it, it's certainly likely.

Um, err, no

The theory of Natural selection and mutations is about achieving a goal through random changes and a lot of trial and error.

Rapping is about creating a song via intelligently picking words and getting something good (according to some people's tastes) the first time off.

You are missing my point by a mile.

The changes are not random, they are dictated by complex rules. Now, the possibilities are near infinite, yes, but.ultimately they are caused by well-understood mechanisms.

Anyway, I wasn't comparing the whole of natural selection to the whole of the art of rapping (like you seem to imply) but the specific parts that creationists and the fellow I quoted complain about.

Kate Shaw Yoshida / Kate is a science writer for Ars Technica. She recently earned a dual Ph.D. in Zoology and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior from Michigan State University, studying the social behavior of wild spotted hyenas.